How Malaria Destroyed the Roman Empire
Posted on 07/15/2018 4:42:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Could an ancient children's burial ground contain clues about how one of the world's greatest empires came to an end? Andrew Thompson explores the theory that malaria was the silent killer responsible for the fall of Rome.
Today in the west, most people have forgotten how deadly malaria used to be, although there were serious malarial epidemics in many parts of Italy as recently as the 1950s. But each year, mainly in Africa, it still kills over two million people, most of them children. While there are several mentions of a disease sounding very similar to malaria in historical documents from Roman times, there has never been any hard evidence of its presence.
But last year, for the first time, a British scientist proved conclusively that the most dangerous type of malaria was a killer in imperial Rome. The scientist relied on the latest DNA techniques that are revolutionising the understanding of the role of disease in ancient times. The malarial DNA from a Roman site, dating from around AD 450, is the oldest definite evidence of malaria in history. The finding of malaria was a remarkable and complicated piece of detective work, which spanned the last ten years...
David Soren is the American archaeologist behind the new theory that malaria played a key part. He is an expert on Roman antiquity, having dug at several sites in the Mediterranean area. Ten years ago he was invited to a beautiful hill town called Lugnano (just north of Rome) by local archaeologists. They wanted Soren to help them excavate the remains of a Roman villa outside the town.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
How Malaria Destroyed the Roman Empire
[snip] Malaria is believed to have been a factor in the decline of the Mesopotamian civilization and the Roman Empire. [/snip]
LIFE IN THE TROPICS:A NEVER ENDING BATTLE WITH NATURE
vt.edu | 1976 and 2002 ? | Kamarck
Posted on 12/08/2002 8:40:36 PM PST by dennisw
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/803192/posts
“How Malaria Destroyed the Roman Empire”
I think it was more like the democrats of Roman times that destroyed Rome.
More likely Rome was so severely weakened by this point that this epidemic pushed it over the edge...
How Malaria Destroyed the Roman Empire
Malaria and the Fall of Rome
Malaria ravaged the ancient Roman Empire 2,000 years ago
Africa is a hell of a place!
At least as big of a factor was Rome not defending her borders and their culture was destroyed. Sound familiar?
“How Malaria Destroyed the Roman Empire”
And then science discovered the remedy...ddt.., and then Wretched Carson wrote her novel and then Nixon/Ruckleshouse (whats in a name?) squashed it.
Debasing their currency didn’t help.
I used to tell my students that Rachel Carson (lauded by their textbook) was inadvertently responsible for more human deaths than Hitler and Stalin combined. There was a college professor who ate a pound of DDT to show how safe it was. The kids would ask “What happened?” I’d say, “He died...30 years later while mountain climbing in his 80s.”
I doubt it. They always had Malaria. It’s the kind of disease that takes a continuous toll, but doesn’t spread exponentially like the plague. There’s no reason it would suddenly wipe out an empire after 700 years. There are plenty of known causes for the decline and fall of Rome, mostly political and economic. There is no one “reason”.
But Rome had ceased being the capital of the Empire a hundred years prior to this, when Constantine moved the center of gov’t to Constantinople?
I didn’t know Obama’s daughter had anything to do with Rome.
I thought it was lead pipes and drinking vessels that enfeebled all the leadership.
Not just Constantinople for the Eastern Roman Empire, but also Ravenna for the Western Roman Empire after 402 AD.
Yes, what a cluster Obama that whole DDT thing was/is. Some dumb bastards in the bowels of our communist government haven’t figured it out yet.
Right. Rome had ceased to be “Rome” before this purported malaria epidemic.
In the West we tend to equate the end of the Roman Empire with the decline of Rome and the Western Empire, I guess in the 400s. But the Empire went on for nearly another 1,000 years with its capital at Byzantium/Constantinople. The fact that the Eastern Empire was more culturally Greek and was eventually overrun by Islam cuts them off from our historical memory.
The gold solidus had a run for nearly 700 years.
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